The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus such as a portable personal computer, and to an electronic system provided with the same.
Compact portable computers, such as a notebook-type personal computer or a so-called mobile computer, have widely been used in recent years. The computer of this type is increasingly required to make an apparatus main body smaller to improve portability and, at the same time, to have further improved performance and realize multifunction.
To realize multifunction, there is provided a personal computer of this type equipped with a small camera, capable of instantly displaying an image picked up by this camera and storing the image as data.
Generally, the portable computer comprises a main body equipped with a keyboard and the like, and a display unit mounted on the main body to be freely opened/closed. The camera is attached at the free end of the display unit and provided so that the direction of the camera is adjustable.
In case of a computer equipped with the camera arranged at the display unit as stated above, however, the camera is moved according to the opening/closing of the display unit. Due to this, the image pickup range of the camera is changed in accordance with the angle with which the display is opened and the direction of the camera must be adjusted according to the change of the pickup range.
Further, since the camera is provided at the display unit, wirings extending from the camera are introduced into the computer main body and connected to a control circuit through the hinge portions of the display unit. In this case, the wirings of the display unit per se are also introduced into the computer main body through the hinge portions. The number of wirings passing through the hinge portions is thereby increased, with the result that it becomes difficult to lead the wirings and to arrange them for space reasons.
Moreover, the above-stated computer is useful when a computer operator, i.e., a person who faces and an object which can face the computer are photographed. However, when an object which is difficult to face with the computer, such as a fixed object, is photographed, it is necessary to move the computer main body to adjust the direction thereof toward the to-be-photographed object. The photographic operation, therefore, becomes disadvantageously quite laborious.
The portable electronic apparatus of this type is desired to further enlarge the application range thereof and to further improve operability by making the apparatus multifunctional.